Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle August 2020

In The Chair by Phylax

Narrative

Bizarrely, I've won! Watch television set:  empty seat, with first of contestants on screen, approaching. "Name?" Attention required, wanting last round close to ideal. Get hard posers - saving skin, slips to some extent put right? Sound right. Expressionless, wise not showing one's beginning to relax...

In The Chair pdf

Several solutions to numbered clues must be modified prior to entry in the grid; lengths given are for grid entries throughout. The unnumbered entries wholly or partly within the main grid are thematically linked and are individually clued in the narrative; these clues do not overlap or have superfluous words separating them. Solvers must deduce the five-word phrase to be entered on the top and bottom lines, the unchecked letters of which can be rearranged to form SO SAGE DON SAT. All entries are real words.

Across

5 Boss got covering removed from protective footwear (4)

7 Will's stocking small shop - love special finishing touch from Kate (8)

10 'Junior' judge being one thoroughly backward (6)

12 Short cut to the ground protects United fan (4)

13 Favoured man in black when wearing a different colour (9)

14 Sure about embracing unknown older person in Elizabethan theatre? (7)

16 I move rapidly to destroy resistance (8)

17 Defeat for men over radical expansion that isn't wanted (8)

20 Closed up shack in street before start of demolition (4)

23 Quiet fellow penning a note in style of rambling autobiographer (4)

24 Solitary quote about sandwiches couple found following do (4)

25 Abandoned well had a steeply sloping area around the rim (8)

26 Stokes curtailed slog, coming in to milk erratic spinner (8)

28 Prescribed slaughtering of animals that lady collided with in Canada on vacation (4)

30 Pistol taking out odd characters when running through this, possibly? (7, two words)

32 English league delayed by a muppet essentially having power to change decisions (9)

33 In Paris, goes for smoke (6)

34 Related to doing divinity in college, I'd messed around with a lot of ladies outside 8)

35 Notable merchant at sea like notable merchant on UK high streets? (4)

Down

1 In the same place lives long-legged water bird (4)

2 Soft parts male kissed amorously under female domination (9)

3 In Rome, it is so Italian to pinch rounded bottom (6, two words)

4 Tricksters once tormented the RAC over Sierra belonging to us (5)

5 Legendary poisoner regularly served pet curare as dog's breakfast (8)

6 Traditional medicine seldom utilizes nurses (4)

8 Practise taxidermy on duck, returning to check about bits left over (7)

9 Ancestor recalled not enjoying California quakes (5)

11 Sun tolerating use of bad language (4)

12 Tool used for cutting nettles dislodging gnome's head (7)

15 In Perth, noisy row that is holding up introduction of runner (6)

18 Pedant dismissing conclusion of this puzzle (7)

19 Dates with debs unfolded here? (9)

21 Slow about quitting Conservative chatline, perhaps? (8)

22 Convoluted rule presented in full depth (7)

27 With boozer unfinished, opening for nocturnal opportunist theft (6)

28 Mollusc shell she's left amongst haul (4)

29 This country air could make Parisian dizzy (5)

30 From Japan, a huge upright drinking vessel (5)

31 Small change over in South America (4)

To enter this competition, send your entry as an image or in list format including the 5 word phrase to ccpuzzles@talktalk.net before 8th September 2020. The first correct entry drawn from the hat will receive a book from the Chambers range, which has been donated by Chambers.

Crossword News July 2020

Crossword News July 2020

Last month our prize puzzle was That’s Life by Flowerman. Extra letters spell MACROMOLECULES followed by A HOMOPHONE OF THIRTY-FIVE and EG AN ENZYME. A homophone of JEANS is GENES, which are composed entirely of the biological macromolecule DNA, a nucleic acid. The other nucleic acid is RNA. Almost all enzymes are PROTEINs.

The CENTRAL DOGMA (of Molecular Biology) is a phrase coined by Francis CRICK. His colleague James WATSON subsequently associated this phrase with a two-step process.

DNA and RNA codons (CODONS obtained from initial letters of normal clues) code for amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. One of 61 different examples* is: AGT (DNA codon) yielding AGU (RNA codon) (by transcription) which induces addition of Serine (SER) (by translation) in the synthesis of a peptide/protein.

*There are 64 possible DNA codons; however, three (STOP codons) do not code for an amino acid.

The title suggests a biological theme. The Central Dogma of Molecular Biology is fundamental to all life on Earth.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

Another terrific puzzle from Flowerman! Pretty complex, but so cleverly designed and executed, with the multiple aspects and assigned tasks seamlessly incorporated. And a top-notch set of clues - very witty, great surface readings. Many thanks, Flowerman.

As soon as I saw Flowerman’s name I knew I was in for a science lesson! What initially looked like quite a frightening preamble was actually not too bad in the end. I thought the clues were good with the extra letters in some cases not at all obvious to spot - and I really liked the ‘JEANS/GENES’ clue. The DNA/Crick & Watson theme seems to come up fairly regularly but ‘central dogma’ was new to me. The final part was a step too far for me - I did start looking up codons but it was all getting a bit too advanced for me so I’m glad it was left as an optional highlighting requirement.

This was a tricky solve! Clues were generally 'challenging' and I'm still not confident about my parsing of 24a and 30a and, as a result, I'm not sure what the two non-word elements given by initial letters are. I have lingering doubts about my highlighting of AGT/AGU/SER.......  That aside, the incorporation of a lot of thematic material is impressive in a 12x12 grid and I feel relieved at having arrived at some sort of conclusion!  Thanks to Flowerman for something of a tour de force.

This proved to be a difficult puzzle. There were 37 entries, of which 1 was marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Mark Roberts from Luxembourg. He will be receiving a copy of Chambers Crossword Dictionary, which was donated by Chambers.

A full solution is available at http://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2020/07/solution-to-thats-life-by-flowerman.html

You have until 8^th August to submit your entry for the July puzzle, What's Here by Vismut

The August Prize Puzzle will be In the Chair by Phylax.
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Good news for fans of the Enigma Variations puzzles. After receiving lots of complaints from solvers, the Sunday Telegraph has reversed their decision to stop the EV crosswords. They will now continue after August.
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A fan of the Cracking the Cryptic YouTube channel has composed a rap in their honour.
https://youtu.be/Au7i9oIDHv0

Fans of Cracking the Cryptic can now but t-shirts and mugs at their store https://www.youtube.com/c/CrackingTheCryptic/store
***
Philip Fine and Kathryn Friedlander have just published a new article looking at the flexible problem-solving ability of solvers. There's a blog here https://bit.ly/3gn03kX which explains the research in a slightly more approachable style, and contains a link to the academic paper itself.
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A video which is well worth watching is Peter Biddlecombe, crossword editor of the Sunday Times and former winner of the Times Crossword Championship, talking about himself and cryptic crosswords in a talk he gave to the Israeli Translators Association. It is now on YouTube - https://youtu.be/hARTp5uNM5g
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On the Clue-Writing Competition your challenge for July is a STANDARD CRYPTIC clue to CAESAREAN (9) by the closing date of MIDNIGHT BST SUNDAY 26th JULY.

Hope you are safe and well.
Best wishes
Derek

Solution to That's Life by Flowerman

That's Life by Flowerman - Solution

Extra letters spell MACROMOLECULES followed by A HOMOPHONE OF THIRTY-FIVE and EG AN ENZYME. A homophone of JEANS is GENES, which are composed entirely of the biological macromolecule DNA, a nucleic acid. The other nucleic acid is RNA. Almost all enzymes are PROTEINs.

The CENTRAL DOGMA (of Molecular Biology) is a phrase coined by Francis CRICK. His colleague James WATSON subsequently associated this phrase with a two-step process.

DNA and RNA codons (CODONS obtained from initial letters of normal clues) code for amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. One of 61 different examples* is: AGT (DNA codon) yielding AGU (RNA codon) (by transcription) which induces addition of Serine (SER) (by translation) in the synthesis of a peptide/protein. 

*There are 64 possible DNA codons; however three (STOP codons) do not code for an amino acid. 

The title suggests a biological theme. The Central Dogma of Molecular Biology is fundamental to all life on Earth.